More from Regent Hall’s missive

Regent Wallace Hall’s letter to the co-chairs of the House committee investigating him for possible impeachment included several attachments, including the 2011 letter from anonymous women faculty members at the UT law school about the practice of giving “forgivable loans” that led to dean Larry Sager’s dismissal. (See our original story in today’s paper here.)

Hall maintains that UT-Austin President William C. Powers knew about Sager’s additional compensation for years and did nothing to stop it. However, the faculty members who wrote the whistleblower letter did not share this impression. In fact, they believed Sager was purposefully hiding the compensation from others at the university: The additional compensation, they wrote, was awarded “off-books” and “out of the scrutiny of any review committee or the president’s office.” (boldface is mine.)

Hall also attached a July 15 letter from Regents’ chairman Gene Powell to Rep. Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, taking issue with an op-ed column Pitts wrote criticizing Hall’s voluminous records requests. Powell gives a full endorsement of Hall’s activities and insists that the Dallas businessman has not abused his ability to see sensitive university information. “I know of no instance of Regent Hall inappropriately sharing information that is confidential by law with others outside the UT system,” Powell wrote. That point is important as lawmakers are concerned that Hall has employed outside attorneys to assist in his investigations of UT-Austin.

Powell’s support of Hall is not universally shared by his fellow regents. Reacting to Hall’s letter, Houston businessman Bobby Stillwell said Friday: “Bill Powers and the other 14 presidents of the institutions in our system are the most important people in the system. Regents don’t contribute nearly as much as these people do. We should be supporting these presidents and not investigating and attacking them.”